THE  POWER,  DUTY,  AND  NECESSITY  OF  DESTROYING  SLAVERY  IN 

THE  REBEL  STATES. 


SPEECH 


OF 


HON.  ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD,  OF  ILLINOIS. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  JANUARY  C,  1S04. 

The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  "Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union,  and  having  under  con¬ 
sideration  the  President’s  proclamation,  Mr.  ARNOLD  said  : 

Mr.  Chairman  :  In  June,  1S5S,  a  comparatively  unknown  man  uttered  in  the  State 
House  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  a  sentiment  which  is  already  historical.  Its  philosophy, 
its  profound  sagacity,  its  prophetic  prescience,  its  unparalleled  boldness  and  hon¬ 
esty,  were  characteristic  of  the  man,  who,  then  obscure,  has  become  already,  to-dav, 
the  foremost  character  in  American  history.  The  sentiment  was  this  : 

“A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  that  this  Government  cannot  perman- 
ently  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved :  I  do  not  exr-ect  the 
house  to  fall;  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.” 

This,  the  first  emphatic  enunciation  of  the  philosophical  fact  of  the  antagonism 
between  liberty  and  slavery,  the  eternal  and  “  irrepressible  ”  conflict  between  them, 
electrified  the  country,  and  made  Abraham  Lincoln  President  of  the  United  States! 

The  moment  the  fact  is  recognized  that  liberty  and  slavery  are  antagonistic,  and 
that  thei%  can  be  no  peace  between  them — that  our  country,  all  of  it,  must  pass  into 
the  dark  night  of  slavery,  or  all  of  it  emerge  into  the  clear  light  of  freedom— all 
loyal,  patriotic  men  become  at  once  anti-slavery  men,  abolitionists. 

Such  I  avow  myself  here,  to-day,  and  I  shall  deem  it  a  proud  distinction  if  I  can 
merit  the  name  by  aiding  in  bringing  about  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery  in  mv 
suffering  country. 

And  a^,  when  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  Roman  republic,  the  people  came  to  feel, 
by  an  instinctive  conviction,  that  Carthage  must  be  destroyed  that  Rome  might  live, 
so,  to-day,  the  American  people  feel  that  slavery  roust  die  that  liberty  and  the  Union 
^may  live.  “ Delenda  est  Carthago ”  became  then  the  motto  of  every  loyal,  patriotic  Ro¬ 
man.  “Down  with  slavery”  is  becoming  the  motto  of  every  loyal,"'  patriotic  American. 
.~^s.  R°man  constancy,  courage,  and  persistence  finally  triumphed  over  Carthage 
so  will  American  constancy,  courage,  and  determination  triumph  over  slavery.  =  ’ 

When  the  Son  of  God  proclaimed  a  common  Father  and  the  universal  brotherhood  ■ 
of  man,  He  enunciated  the  great  moral  principle  which  brought  on  the  irrepressible 
conflict  with  slavery.  It  is  difficult,  it  seems  to  me,  for  a  man  to  recognize  fully  the 
truth  of  IBs  teaching,  in  the  light  of  this  rebellion,  without  becoming  an  opponent 
of  slavery.  Just  to  the  extent  that  Christianity  prevails,  slavery  will  disappear. 
The  glorious  light  of  Christianity  must  fade  from  the  earth,  or  slavery  cease  It  is  ' 
a  relict  of  a  barbarous  and  a  savage  age,  and,  thank  God,  it  is  melting  rapidly  awav 
before  the  light  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  LIBERTY. 

,W®U*(1  be  a '  m.°st  interesting  task  to  retrace  the  footprints  of  liberty,  amidst 
the  dust  and  rubbish  which  have  gathered  over  the  history  of  the  past ;  'to  follow 
the  ofttimes  obliterated  pathway  by  which,  since  Christ’s  sermon  on  the  mount 
freedom  regulated  by  law  has  been  developed  into  its  present  majestic  and  grand 
proportions.  I  hesitate  not  to  .affirm  that  all  that  there  is  which  is  valuable  in 
republican  and  free  institutions  has  its  foundation  in  the  sublime  morality  and  broa  1 
humanity  of  the  Bible.  The  glorious  theme  of  man’s  struggle  through  the  age' 
fm  libei  t},  is  yet  to  be  written.  Historians  have  told  us  much  of  courts  and  camps 
of  the  changes  of  dynasties,  of  battles  by  land  and  on  the  sea  ;  but  who  among  then 
has  traced  the  history  of  man’s  progress,  and  his  struggles,  through  the  a£s  for 

\  ltb  TUl  the  pUrSU,t  0f  haPPinese  ?”  This  history,  even  as  presented  by 
that  nation  and  race  most  interesting  to  us— the  English— has  yet  to  be  fully  wrif- 

dLTnfVm  °mn  has  yet  to  write  who  has  gone  back  and ‘recorded  for  }ii8  the  • 
dawn  of  freedom  among  the  early  Saxons,  its  memorable  triumph  on  the  field  of 

A*™  ymjdki  /trUggle9  through  the  reigns  of  the  Henrys  and  the  Edward*  its 
fierce  and  bloody  contest  with  Charles  the  First,  the  Roundhead  against  the  Cav- 
a  ier ;  thence  to  the  Petition  of  Right,  pausing  with  sad  steps  at  the  grave  of  Ha  mb 

on«S”8  I':  8CaTolt,0f(RU98ellJand  AIS*T"  ;  thence  t0gthe  revoTnZ 

Of  16S8  the  gradual  but  sure  advance  to  the  noble  efforts  of  Fox  and  Erskine  and 
Curran  to  secure  freedom  of  speech,  liberty  of  the  press,  and  trial  by  jury  down  to 

SeiZZTr?  ::iVrLlhe}Ens,!i  comt,tut,.r'  wbe° wd 

eUvtw  cannot^breathtflrrEngiand!”  aimin^  “  ^  ““  #f  tb«  "  th-t 

God  speed  the  hour  when  the  Chief  Justice  of  our  land  may  truthfully  announce 


2 


the  same  fact.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  would  I  have  crowned  the  dome  of  this  Capi¬ 
tol  with  the  statue  of  Liberty.  The  great  English  bard  who  expiated  a  life  of 
follies  by  giving  himself  a  martyr  to  Greece,  has  said  : 

“  Freedom’s  battle,  once  begun, 

Bequeathed  by  bleeding  sire  to  son, 

Though  baffled  oft,  is  ever  won.” 

The  historian  who  writes  the  story  of  man’s  progress  from  slavery  and  barbarism 
to  Christian  civilization  and  liberty,  will  find  no  more  interesting  page  than  that 
which  is  now  being  filled  with  the  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged;  none  where 
the  contest  between  liberty  and  slavery  has  been  more  clearly  defined  ;  none  upon 
a  grander  theater;  none  where  the  combatants,  by  their  numbers,  genius,  ability, 
and  heroism,  have  given  more  dignity  and  sublimity  to  the  contest. 

WEAPONS  OF  FREEDOM. 

When,  in  1858,  Abraham  Lincoln  uttered  the  philosophic  truth  that  freedom  and 
slavery  could  not  permanently  exist  together — that  our  country  would  become  all 
free  or  all  slave — be  did  not  anticipate  any  but  a  moral  conflict.  The  weapons  by 
which  he  expected  freedom  to  triumph  were  the  weapons  of  truth  and  free  discus¬ 
sion.  Free  speech,  a  free  press,  reason,  the  schoolmaster,  the  sermon,  the  lecture, 
the  printing-press,  the  telegraph,  the  ballot:  these  were  the  agencies,  the  weapons, 
by  which  the  battle  was  to  be  fought.  It  was  with  the  ballot,  and  not  with  bullets, 
the  victor}7  was  expected  to  be  won.  The  victory  was  won  by  these  peaceful 
agencies  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President.  Slavery,  conscious  that 
it  could  not  stand  free  discussion,  that  it  must  be  destroyed  if  free  speech  and  a 
free  press  were  tolerated,  appealed  from  the  ballot-box  to  the  sword,  and  brought 
upon  the  country  this  terrible  war. 

SLAVERY  MUST  DIE  BY  THE  LAWS  OF  WAR. 

Slavery  having  plunged  the  nation  into  this  war,  it  is  fit  that  it  should  die  by  the 
laws  of  war.  Slavery  stands  before  the  world  to  day  guilty  of  all  the  calamities  of 
our 'country.  Every  dollar  expended,  every  suffering  endured,  every  drop  of  blood 
spilled,  every  wound,  and  every  death,  on  every  battle-field  and  in  every  hospital, 
is  the  penalty  we  pay  for  the  existence  and  toleration  of  American  slavery. 

It  is  to-day  a  rebel  and  a  traitor.  Let  us  declare  it  an  outlaw  under  our  Con¬ 
stitution  and  laws. 

There  has  never  been  a  day  since  our  existence  as  a  nation  when  slavery  was  loyal 
to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  Now  an  open  enemy,  striking  at  the  heart  of 
the  Republic,  it  has  always  been  a  plotting,  stealthy,  secret  traitor,  undermining 
the  Constitution,  and  sapping  the  foundations  of  our  liberties. 

INDICTMENT  AGAINST  SLAVERY. 

The  counts  of  the  indictment  against  slavery,  were  I  to  recapitulate  its  outrages  and 
its  wrongs,  from  the  organization  of  the  Government  down,  would  swell  to  volumes. 

The  effects  of  slavery  in  retarding  our  national  growth  and  prosperity  are  ap¬ 
parent  at  a  glance. 

The  finest  portion  of  our  country,  with  the  richest  soil,  situated  in  the  most  genial 
climate,  has  been  blighted  by  this  curse.  Watered  by  navigable  streams,  nearer  to 
the  sun,  with  every  element  of  prosperity  and  wealth  showered  upon  it,  yet  poor, 
sparsely  settled,  with  neither  thrift,  nor  comfort,  nor  commerce,  nor  manufactures, 
nor  culture,  nor  art,  nor  intelligence  ;  all  because  labor  was  not  free.  AY  bile  sterile, 
rocky,  cold,  bleak,  barren  New  England,  under  the  influence  of  free  labor,  smiles 
with  abundant  harvests,  every  valley  blooms  like  a  garden,  every  hill  shelters  a 
thriving  village  ;  with  every  element  of  comfort,  with  a  commerce  whitening  every 
sea,  with  skilled  and  intelligent  labor  which  sends  its  manufactures  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.  Why  is  this?  Because  liberty  dwells  among  the  mountains  of 
New  England,  and  slavery  blackens  and  desolates  the  sunny  plains  of  the  South. 

In  the  one  you  find  the  happy  home,  the  school-house,  the  church,  the  lyceum,  the 
newspaper,  the  railroad,  the  telegraph  ;  and  everywhere  domestic  comfort  and  do¬ 
mestic  virtue,  refinement,  culture,  the  arts,  taste,  Christian  civilization  in  its  highest 
forms.  In  the  other,  you  find  the  great  plantation,  the  slave-pen,  squalor,  poverty, 
•  misery;  in  place  of  the  school-house,  the  slave  market,  where  children,  boys  and  girls, 
are  bought  and  sold  ;  ignorance,  brutality  ;  without  art,  without  literature,  without 
inventions  or  labor-saving  machinery;  everywhere  slavery  opeiating  as  a  moral 
blight,  an  intellectual  extinguisher,  reducing  rapidly  a  once  noble  people  into  barba¬ 
rism.  *  Such  are  the  results  of  slavery.  These  results  as  naturally  follow  free  labor, 
and  the  degradation  of  labor,  as  that  the  summer  produces  fruit  and  the  winter 
destroys  it. 

AM  history  demonstrates  that  the  feet  that  are  fettered,  and  the  hanu3  that  are  man¬ 
acled  cannot  contend  with  those  that  are  free.  The  hand  that  is  enslaved  produces 
bo  work  of  merit.  The  brain  that  conceives  and  the  hand  that  executes  all  gieat 
things  must  be  free. 


3 


9 


n 


77? 


**  i 


God  has  established  the  great  law  of  compensation,  that  true  national  greatness 
can  never  grow  up  from  wrong  and  wickedness,  and  we  behold  to-day  in  our  coun¬ 
try  its  most  striking  illustration. 

All  history  teaches  that  ignorance,  vice,  pauperism,  and  barbarism  are  the  natural 
and  inevitable  results  of  the  degradation  of  labor.  It  is  quite  time  to  cut  loose  this 
millstone  from  about  our  necks. 


SLAVERY  BECAME  MASTER  OF  OUR  GOVERNMENT. 

Slavery  having,  in  an  unfortunate  moment  been  tolerated  by  the  framers  of  our 
Constitution,  under  the  mistaken  belief  that  it  would  be  but  a  temporary  evil,  soon 
aspired  to  and  became  the  master  of  the  Government.  Having  intrenched  itself  in 
the  very  citadel  of  political  power,  conscious  of  its  inherent  weakness,  it  demanded 
additional  territory  for  its  expansion,  first  Louisiana,  then  Florida,  then  Texas. 
These  territories,  vast  enough  for  an  empire,  having  been  secured,  slavery  then  de¬ 
manded  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  line  that  it  might  carry  its  curse  North  as  well 
as  South  and  West. 

Why  need  I  remind  the  people  of  the  perfidious  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise, 
showing  the  slaveholder’s  promise  in  this  instance  to  be  as  sacred  as  a  gambler’s 
word  or  a  secessionist’s  oath?  The  story  of  the  sublime  struggle  in  Kansas,  between 
fraud  and  violence  and  outrage  on  one  side,  and  heroic  firmness  on  the  other,  has 
not  faded  from  the  memory  of  the  people.  Her  prairies,  red  with  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  to  liberty,  her  valleys,  black  with  the  cinders  of  her  burned  and  devastated 
towns  and  villages,  attest  alike  the  devotion  of  her  people  to  liberty  and  the  savage 
barbarity  of  her  enemies.  All  honor  to  Kansas  1  She  was,  indeed,  the  rock  against 
which  the  turbulent  waves  of  violence  rolled  in  vain.  Single-handed  she  success¬ 
fully  resisted  the  slave  power  backed  by  the  Federal  Government. 

Up  to  this  period  of  the  struggle,  the  career  of  the  slaveholders  in  their  lust  of  do¬ 
mination  had  met  with  no  seroius  check.  Slavery  was  absolute  on  the  bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court ;  it  dictated  in  the  national  councils ;  it  furnished  the  Presidents,  or 
designated  the  most  subservient  tool  it  could  purchase  among  its  northern  sy¬ 
cophants  to  occupy  the  Executive  Mansion.  It  was  a  ruler  in  the  Halls  of  Con¬ 
gress.  The  Army  and  the  Navy,  with  West  Point  and  the  Naval  School  as  its  nur¬ 
series — the  training  from  which  yet  lingers — were  its  right  and  left  hand  to  carry 
out  its  purposes.  The  national  treasure,  collected  in  large  proportion  at  the  North, 
was  expended  mainly  at  the  South  and  to  fill  the  pockets  of  slaveholders.  The 
qualifications  for  your  representatives  abroad  were  fealty  to  slavery.  Every  new 
Territory  was  filled  with  the  minions  of  this  slave  power,  and  was  a3  regularly 
trained  up  to  the  interests  of  slavery  as  the  proteges  of  Jefferson  Davis  in  military  life 
were  trained  to  his  will. 

QUESTIONS  OF  TEACE  AND  WAR.  OF  FOREIGN  AND  DOMESTIC  FOLICY,  CONTROLLED  AND 

SHAPED  BY  SLAVEHOLDERS. 

The  slaveholder  held  the  purse  and  the  sword;  he  was  king  at  the  White  House, 
a  ruler  here  in  this  Hall,  a  despot  in  the  Senate,  and  everywhere  a  tyrant. 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  slaveholder  in  1858. 

SLAVERY  HAD  REVOLUTIONIZED  TOE  GOVERNMENT  AND  DESTROYED  TOE  PRINCIPLES  OF  LIBERTY. 

Meanwrhile  slavery  had  revolutionised  the  Government.  The  great  principles  of 
Magna  Charta  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  ceased  to  have  practical  ex¬ 
istence  in  a  large  part  of  the  Union.  Liberty  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press,  and 
trial  by  jury  had,  to  a  great  extent,  disappeared  in  the  slave  States.  Indeed,  that 
portion  of  the  so  called  Republic  had  ceased  to  be  a  government  of  law,  and  had 
become  a  government  of  a  tyrannic,  cruel  oligarch}”,  more  odious,  despicable  and 
cruel  than  any  on  earth.  There  was  no  redress  for  any  outrage,  however  cruel,  if 
perpetrated  in  behalf  and  at  the  behest  of  slavery.  The  vengeance  of  the  slave¬ 
holder  against  the  man  who  spoke  or  published  in  behalf  of  liberty  was  sharp, 
speedy,  and  unrelenting.  The  bowie-knife  and  the  bludgeon,  the  halter,  and  even 
the  stake,  were  the  instruments  of  violence  and  torture  resorted  to  by  lynch 
judges  who  found  any  bold  enough  to  question  the  divinity  of  the  “pecular  institu¬ 
tion.”  In  the  slave  States  of  this  Union  an  anti-slavery  man  had  no  rights  which  a 
slaveholder  felt  bound  to  respect.  In  those  States  the  Constitution  had  disappeared. 
I  say,  then  that  slavery  had  established  a  revolution  in  the  slave  States,  overturned 
a  republican  form  of  government  and  established  a  depotism  in  its  place. 

The  degeneracy  and  barbarism  produced  by  slavery  are  etrikingly  illustrated  by 
Virginia.  Before  the  rebellion  a  chief  source  of  her  wealth  was  in  the  cargoes  and 
cofiles  of  men,  women,  and  children  she  raised  and  sent  to  the  Gulf  States  for  sale. 
Some  }”ears  she  exported  her  forty  and  fifty  thousand  ;  and  this  was  done  without  a 
blush  in  the  grand  old  Commowealth  of  Virginia — the  land  of  Washington,  the  mo¬ 
ther  of  statesmen ! 

Let  us  pause  a  moment,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  contemplate  the  saddest  spectacle  of  all 
this  war — Virginia  as  she  is  to-day.  She  was  worthy  of  her  early  pre-eminence. 
Her  early  history  was  brilliant  indeed.  Washington,  Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry, 


4 


Madison,  and  Marshall,  all  men  of  whom  any  nation  might  be  proud.  There  is 
something  grand  and  majestic  in  the  physical  conformation  of  the  old  Commonwealth. 
'With  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Blue  Ridge  running  through  her  entire  extent,  she 
seems  fashioned  for  the  abode  of  freemen.  When  we  remember  that  her  greatest 
writer  penned  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  that 
he  declared  that  in  a  contest  between  her  slaveholders  and  their  slaves  the  Almighty 
had  no  attribute  which  would  take  sides  with  the  master ;  and  when  we  look  upon 
her  to-day,  and  see  to  wliat  slavery  has  reduced  the  proud  old  Commonwealth,  it  is 
indeed  the  saddest  spectacle  of  the  war.  She  is  being  purged  as  with  fire;  she  will 
pass  through  this  agony,  and  come  out  of  it  restored,  emancipated,  disenthralled,  and 
regenerated.  Once  more  shall  she  be  hailed  as  the  mother  of  States — free  States — 
and  statesmen.  Mount  Yernon  and  Monticello  will  again  become  the  Meccas  of  the 
American  patriot.  Through  the  dark  clouds  which  now  envelop  her  the  bow  of 
promise  shall  reappear;  that  bow  shall  rest  upon  liberty.  When  she  shall  have 
passed  through  this  agony,  and  shall  arise  freed  and  regenerated,  when  her  every 
petty  tyrant  shall  have  been  dethroned,  then  will  her  stern  old  motto,  “  Sic  semper 
tyrannis”  have  a  new  and  glorious  significance. 

In  view, then,  of  all  the  curses  which  slavery  has  inflicted  upon  the  country,  I  im¬ 
peach  American  slavery  before  the  American  people  and  their  Congress,  and  demand 
whether  it  shall  still  live. 

I  charge  slavery  with  treason  and  with  murder;  I  charge  it  with  the  murder  of 
every  Union  soldier  who  has  been  sacrificed  since  the  rebels  fired  upon  Fort  Sumter ; 

I  charge  it  with  the  assassination  of  Ellsworth  and  Lyon  and  Baker  and  McCook,  and 
the  whole  army  of  martyrs  who  have  been  perfidiously  slain  by  slaveholders  since 
they  began  the  1’ebellion ;  I  charge  it  with  a  conspiracy  to  undermine  and  subvert 
the  liberties  and  Constitution  of  my  country,  to  erect  a  despotism  upon  its  ruins ; 

I  charge  slavery  with  the  death  of  all  those  who  have  fallen  in  this  war.  It  has 
dug  the  half  million  of  graves  for  patriots  and  rebels  made  by  this  war;  and  those 
who  sleep  there  would,  but  for  this  cursed  institution,  to-day  be  living  in  peace 
and  fraternity. 

In  the  name,  then,  of  these  dead,  in  the  name  of  the  widows  and  orphans  thus  * 
created,  in  the  name  of  our  country  which  it  has  desolated,  in  the  name  of  the  Con¬ 
stitution  which  it  has  sought  to  overthrow,  I  demand  the  abolition  of  American  slavery. 

YOU  CAN  HAVE  NO  PEACE  WHILE  SLAVERY  EXISTS. 

You  can  have  no  permanent  peace  while  slavery  lives.  A  truce  }7ou  might  have, 
possibly,  until  it  could  recover  its  power;  but  peace,  never.  Your  contest  with  it 
is  to  the  death.  Your  implacable  enemy  now  reels  and  staggers.  Strike  the  de¬ 
cisive  blow.  You  could  not  if  you  would,  and  you  ought  not  if  you  could,  make 
terms  of  compromise  with  slavery.  You  have  abolished  it  at  this  capital.  You  have 
forever  prohibited  it  in  all  your  Territories.  Your  Government  has  hung  a  man 
for  participating  in  the  slave  trade.  You  have  admitted  West  Virginia  free.  You 
have  acknowledged  the  independence  of  Hayti. '  You  have  enlisted,  and  are  enlist¬ 
ing,  African  soldiers;  they  have  carried  your  banner  bravely  and  triumphantly  on 
many  hard-fought  fields.  You  have  pledged  your  faith  to  them,  to  the  world,  and 
to  God,  that  they  shall  be  free.  Tou  have  crowned  the  dome  of  your  Capitol  with 
Liberty.  At  your  call  Missouri  is  throwing  off  the  incubus  of  slavery.  Maryland 
shouts  back,  through  the  ballot-box,  her  joyous  answer  that  she,  too,  is  to  be  free. 
Delaware,  Tennessee,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  Louisiana  will  not  linger.  Your  Presi¬ 
dent,  in  a  proclamation  of  emancipation,  which,  while  it  has  revolutionized  the 
public  sentiment  and  the  action  of  Europe,  has  secured  victory  to  our  arms,  has  pro¬ 
claimed  liberty  and  emancipation  throughout  the  territory  in  rebellion. 

Here,  then,  we  are  on  the  eve  of  universal  emancipation.  We  cannot  go  back,  and  we 
must  not  halt.  Slavery  must  die.  The  sooner  it  dies,  the  sooner  we  shall  have  peace. 

HOW  SHALL  SLAVERY  BE  EXTERMINATED? 

First,  I  reply,  in  the  border  States,  by  the  action  of  the  States  themselves.  This 
action  will  be  speedy  and  decisive. 

Second.  In  all  the  territory  in  rebellion,  slavery  has  been  already  substantially 
abolished  by  the  proclamation  of  emancipation.  Confirm  by  Congress  this  pro¬ 
clamation,  prohibit  the  re-establishment,  of  slavery  and  abolish  it  in  that  part  of  the 
rebel  States  not  included  in  the  proclamation. 

Third.  Slavery  being  thus  everywhere  abolished,  amend  the  Constitution,  prohibit¬ 
ing  its  re-establishment  or  existence  in  every  part  of  the  United  States. 

Has  Congress  the  power  to  confirm,  sanction,  and  carry  out  the  proclamation  of 
emancipation,  and  prohibit  slavery  in  all  that  portion  of  the  United  States  desig¬ 
nated  therein? 

WHAT  POWER  HAS  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY  IN  TIME  OF  WAR? 

I  claim  that  the  Government  has  the  power  in  time  of  war,  as  a  war  measure,  to 
abolish  slavery  wherever  and  whenever  it  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  success 
of  the  war. 


5 


It  is  a  principle  in  the  interpretation  of  statutes  and  constitutions,  familiar  to 
lawyers,  that,  to  determine  their  meaning,  you  may  look  into  and  consider  their 
preamide.  This  is,  indeed,  usually  the  key  to  the  instrument.  It  states  the  object 
sought  to  be  attained  by  the  statute  ;  and  it  would  be  strange,  if  the  preamble  re¬ 
cites  that  the  Constitution  was  ordained  to  accomplish  a  certain  specified  purpose, 
if  the  power  to  accomplish  that  purpose  is  not  found  in  the  Constitution.  Now,  the 
preamble  to  the  Constitution  recites  that  the  people,  “  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect 
Union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquility,  provide  for  the  common  defense, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty,  «tc.,  ordain  and 
establish  this  Constitution,”  &c. 

For  the  purpose  of  securing  these  objects  a  Government  was  established,  clothed 
with  powers  adequate,  as  was  supposed,  to  accomplish  these  purposes.  Now,  if  a 
permanent  and  perfect  union  between  free  and  slave  States  has  been  demonstrated 
to  be  impossible,  may  not  the  obstacle  to  such  union  be  removed?  If  justice  cannot 
be  established  while  slavery  exists,  shall  not  slavery  cease?  Has  Congress  the  con¬ 
stitutional  power  to  insure  domestic  tranquility?  I  submit  to  the  candid  and 
thoughtful  men  of  all  parties  whether,  in  the  light  of  the  history  of  the  past,  the 
endless  controversies  and  dissensions,  from  the  Missouri  question  down  to  the  civil 
war  in  Kansas,  the  riots  and  outrages  caused  by  slavery,  culminating  in  this  terrible 
rebellion  and  bloody  war,  whether  domestic  tranquility  is  attainable  while  slavery 
exists?  If  not,  may  not  this  domestic  tranquility  be  insured  by  removing  the  dis¬ 
turbing  cause?  If,  indeed,  there  is  no  medicine  for  this  evil,  if  this  vicious  element 
may  not  be  removed,  then  the  founders  of  the  Government  established  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  to  insure  tranquility  without  the  power  to  accomplish  the  object. 

Among  the  enumerated  objects  of  the  Constitution  was  to  provide  for  the  public 
defense.  Assuming  the  fact  that  slavery  is  a  source  of  weakness  and  danger  to  us,  and 
would  afford  aid  and  strength  to  a  foreign  or  domestic  enemy,  can  we  provide  for  the 
common  defense  by  removing  the  danger?  If  a  cit}"  charter  vested  in  the  corporate 
body  the  power  to  provide  for  the  common  defense,  and  a  magazine  of  powder 
should  be  established  in  a  populous  district,  would  any  lawyer  doubt  the  power  of 
the  corporation  to  cause  its  removal?  If  a  dangerous  and  contagious  disease  should 
spring  up,  would  the  power  to  cause  its  removal  be  questioned  ?  If  a  pestilence¬ 
breeding  nuisance  existed,  could  it  be  removed  and  its  cause  be  prohibited  ? 

Again,  the  Constitution  was  ordained  to  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  to  secure 
to  us  and  to  our  posterity  the  blessings  of  liberty.  Suppose  experience  has  demon¬ 
strated  that  we  canuot  have  prosperity,  nor  the  blessings  of  liberty,  without  extirpat¬ 
ing  slavery.  Suppose  the  census  tables  demonstrate  that  slavery  is  the  great  obstacle 
to  our  progress;  that  free  labor  will  produce  double  that  of  slave  labor;  that  with 
free  labor  3'ou  will  have  national  prosperity,  wealth,  every  element  of  greatness  ;  that 
with  freedom  3*011  will  have  education,  arts,,  science,  civilization,  religion  ;  while  with 
slavery  }7ou  have  ignorance,  brutality,  vice,  barbarism  :  can  we,  under  a  Constitution 
formed  with  the  avowed  object  of  promoting  the  general  welfare,  promote  it  by 
abolishing  slavery?  Suppose  it  to  be  demonstrated  that  liberty  and  slavery  are  in¬ 
compatible,  and  that  unless  you  destroy  slavery,  slavery  will  destroy  freedom  and 
republican  government,  can  you  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  )’ourselves  and 
your  posterity  by  destroying  slavery  ? 

THE  POWER  TO  GOVERN  THAT  PORTION  OF  THE  UNION  IN  REBELLION  MtJST  BE  IN  THE  NATIONAL 

GOVERNMENT  SO  LONG  AS  REBELLION  EXISTS. 

There  is  to-day  no  government  in  that  portion  of  the  United  States  in  rebellion, 
except  the  national  Government.  Until  it  is  restored  to  the  Union,  the  power  to  gov¬ 
ern  it  must  exist  somewhere.  Where  is  it?  I  sav,  in  the  President  and  in  Congress. 

That  is  a  part  of  our  country.  The  United  States — the  nation — has  guarantied  to  it 
a  republican  form  of  government.  None  exists  there  to-day.  Jefferson  Davis  has 
established  a  despotism  there.  That  despotism  must  be  crushed,  and  a  republican 
government  established.  Everything  needful  to  that  end  the  President  and  Congress 
may  rightfully  do.  The  power  to  establish  all  needful  rules  and  regulations,  and 
make  all  laws  necessary  to  the  restoration  of  a  government  republican  in  form,  must 
exist  in  the  national  Government. 

I  do  not  choose  to  theorize  about  State  suicide,  nor  whether  the  rebel  States  are  in 
the  condition,  in  every  respect,  of  Territories.  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  government  in  this  rebel  territory,  except  the  despotism  of  Jefferson  Davis. 
There  is  no  State  government  there.  There  is  no  republican  government  there.  The 
loyal  cit  izens  of  that  part  of  the  Union  call  upon  us  to  fulfill  the  constitutional  gua¬ 
rantee  of  giving  them  a  republican  form  of  government. 

Whatever  it  is  necessary  to  do,  to  execute  in  their  favor  this  constitutional  guaran¬ 
tee,  Congress  and  the  President  may  rightfully  do.  The  right  to  crush  armed  resis¬ 
tance  to  the  Constitution  and  laws,  and  for  Congress  to  make  and  the  President  to 
execute  such  laws  as  will  result  in  the  establishment  of  a  republican  government,  is 
then  clear.  But  this  right  to  coerce  into  subjection, and  govern  until  obedience  and 


6 


loyalty  shall  resume  their  sway,  all  territory  and  States  in  rebellion,  is  notleft  to  in¬ 
ference,  nor  is  it  dependent  only  on  those  parts  of  the  Constitution  to  which  attention 
has  already  been  called.  The  Constitution  also  provides  that  “  Congress  shall  have 
power  to  provide  for  the  common  defense  and  the  general  welfare.” 

Congress  also  has  power  “  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by 
this  Constitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or 
officer  thereof.” 

Now,  the  President  is  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  its 
armies,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  suppress  rebellion,  repel  invasion,  and  maintain  the 
Constitution  everywhere  in  the  Union,  and  carry  out  the  guarantee  to  each  State  of 
a  republican  form  of  government;  and  this  he  is  to  do,  when  necessary,  by  force, 
by  war,  subject  to  the  laws  of  war ;  and  Congress  has  full  power  to  make  all  laws 
necessary  and  proper  to  carry  out,  and  into  full  execution,  these  war  powers  of 
the  Government,  including  the  well-established 

BELLIGERENT  RIGHT  OF  EMANCIPATING  SLAVES. 

If  slavery  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  rebellion,  can  not  that  corner-stone  be  con¬ 
stitutionally  knocked  out?  If  slavery  is  the  cause  of  the  war,  giving  strength 
to  our  enemies ;  if  it  feeds  and  clothes  their  armies,  and  keeps  them  in  the  field,  and 
enables  them  to  keep  up  their  power ;  and  if  the  President,  or  Congress,  or  both 
acting  together,  by  freeing  them,  can  deprive  the  rebels  of  this  power,  and  bring  % 

their  freed  slaves  to  cur  side,  and  thus  provide  for  the  common  defense,  and  thus 
restore  the  Union  and  a  republican  government  to  the  loyal  men  of  the  rebel  States, 
is  not  the  right  to  do  this  clear  and  indisputable  ?  If  we  have  not  this  right,  then 
is  the  Government  without  the  means  of  self-preservation. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  “  the  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State 
in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government.”  Congress  has  the  power  to  do 
everything  necessary  to  make  good  that  guarantee.  If  the  emancipation  of  slaves 
in  the  rebel  States  will  tend  to  the  establishment  of  a  republican  form  of  government 
in  the  States  in  rebellion,  who  can  deny  the  power  to  emancipate  ?  The  govern¬ 
ment,  so  called,  existing  de  facto,  in  the  States  in  rebellion,  is  in  antagonism  to  the 
|  republican  government  the  Constitution  requires  the  nation  to  guaranty.  It  is  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  destroy  that  usurped  and  rebellious  de  facto 
government,  and  establish  a  republican  government  in  its  place.  In  accomplishing 
this,  if  slavery  stands  in  the  way,  may  it  not  be  removed  out  of  the  way?  Con¬ 
gress,  under  this  constitutional  provision,  has  the  power,  and  it  is  its  duty,  to  make 
war  upon  the  anti- republican  government  now  usurping  power  in  the  rebel  States. 

It  has  all  the  power  to  make  that  war  effective.  Has  the  Government  the  right  to 
make  war,  without  the  right  to  use  the  means  to  make  the  war  Effective  ?  Can 
the  Government  declare  war,  and  is  this  a  mere  barren  right?  No,  this 
Government,  having  the  right  to  carry  on  the  war,  possesses  all  the  powers  known 
to  civilized  nations  to  make  war  effective,  and  among  these  powers  is  the  right 
to  emancipate  slaves. 

I  ask  gentlemen  this  question.  Jeff.  Davis  has  made  war  upon  our  country,  at¬ 
tempted  to  set  up  upon  our  soil  a  rebellious  government,  attacked  our  capital,  and 
now  holds  a  portion  of  these  States  under  a  despotic  tyranny.  In  making  war  upon 
him  to  subdue  him,  to  re  establish  our  authority,  and  fulfill  the  guarantee  of  a  repub¬ 
lican  form  of  goverument,  can  our  Government  do  all  that  one  nation  can  do  when 
at  war  with  another  under  the  rules  of  war?  Surely  this  will  not  be  denied.  This 
brings  us  to  the  inquiry  whether  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  the  enemy  is  or 
is  not  a  recognized  mode  of  carrying  on  modern  warfare.  Let  us  see.  The  end  we 
are  seeking  to  accomplish  is  to  crush  the  rebellion.  The  abolition  of  slavery  tends 
•  directly  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  end,  and  as  effectually  as  to  subdue  the  rebel 
armies  in  the  field.  Without  their  slaves-  the  rebel  aimies  could  not  long  exist. 
Emancipation  not  only  deprives  the  rebels  of  the  means  of  supporting  their  armies, 
but  it  is  the  most  efficient  means  of  bringing  the  force  and  power  of  four  millions 
of  people  to  our  side. 

Now,  the  end  we  are  seeking,  to  wit,  the  destruction  of  the  rebel  power,  being 
legitimate,  and  “within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,”  to  use  the  language  of 
Chief  Justice  Marshall,  all  means  which  are  appropriate  and  plainly  adapted  to  the 
end,  and  which  are  not  prohibited  by  the  Constitution,  are  lawful.  [4  Wheaton’s 
Hep.,  421.]  I  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  of  an  enemy  is  a  well-recognized  belligerent  right,  and  would  not  be  ques¬ 
tioned  by  any  well-informed  person  if  we  were  at  war  with  Spain,  Brazil,  or  any 
other  nation  holding  slaves.  Has  not  our  Government  the  same  belligerent  rights 
against  the  infamous  traitor  Davis  as  it  would  have  against  a  recognized  nation  ? 

Are  the  rebels  less  public  enemies  because  they  are  traitors  also?  Can  we  do  that 
to  a  public  enemy  which  we  cannot  do  to  a  public  enemy  and  a  traitor?  In  the 
case  of  the  Hiawatha,  it  has  been  distinctly  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  that  the 


7 


United  States  have  all  the  belligerent  rights  against  the  rebels.  If,  then,  the 
emancipation  of  slaves  is  a  belligerent  right,  that  right  exists  in  the  Government ; 
it  may  be  exercised  by  the  President,  as  it  has  been  by  the  proclamation  of  emanci¬ 
pation.  It  exists  in  Congress,  to  be  exercised,  if  expedient,  by  emancipating  slaves 
and  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory  in  rebellion.  The  right  to  emancipate 
slaves  has  been  so  generally  recognized  as  a  belligerent  right  that  it  will  scarcely  be 
questioned.  This  power  was  exercised  by  Great  Britain  in  the  revolutionary  war, 
and  in  the  war  of  1812;  and  the  right  to  exercise  it  was  admitted  by  General 
Washington,  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  not  controverted  by  any. 

Mr.  Jefferson  says  Virginia  lost  t  hirty  thousand  slaves  under  Cornwallis,  and  if  the 
slaves  had  been  taken  “  to  give  them  freedom  it  would  have  been  right.”  The  state¬ 
ment  and  argument  of  John  Quincy  Adamson  this  subject  hUve  never  been  suc¬ 
cessfully  answered : 

“  I  lay  this  down  as  the  law  of  nations.  I  say  that  military  authority  takes,  for  the  time,  the 
place  of  all  municipal  institutions,  and  slavery  among  the  rest;  and  that,  under  that  state  of 
things,  so  far  from  its  being  true  that  the  States  where  slavery  exists  have  the  exclusive  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  subject,  not  only  the  President  of  the  United  states, -but  the  Commander  of  the 
Army  has  row  er  to  order  the  universal  emancipation  of  the  slaves.”  *  *  * 

“From  the  instant  that  the  slaveholding  States  become  the  theater  of  a  war.  civil,  servile,  or 
foreign,  from  that  instant  the  war  powers  of  Congress  extend  to  interference  with  the  institution 
of  slavery,  in  every  way  in  which  it  can  he  interfered  toith,  from  a  claim  of  indemnity  for  slaves 
taken  or  destroyed,  to  the  cession  of  Mates  burdened  with  slavery  to  a  foreign  Power.”  * 

*  *  *  “  It  is  a  war  power.  I  say  it  is  a  war  power;  and  when  your  country  is 

actually  in  war,  whether  it  be  a  war  of  invasion  or  a  war  of  insurrection.  Congress  has  power  to 
carry  on  the  war,  and  must  carry  it  on ,  according  to  the  laws  of  war  ;  and  by  the  laws  of  war  an 
invaded  country  has  all  its  laws  and  municipal  institutions  swept  by  the  board,  and  martial  power 
takes  the  place  of  them.  When  two  hostils  armies  are  set  in  martial  array,  the  commanders  of 
both  armies  have  power  to  emancipate  all  the  slaves  in  the  invaded  territory.” 

The  great  error  in  the  public  mind  on  this  subject  arises  from  applying  the  provi¬ 
sions  designed  to  protect  citizens  in  times  of  peace  to  traitors  in  time  of  war. 

The  provision  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life  "without  due  process  of  law 
does  not  make  it  illegal  or  unconstitutional  to  kill  rebels  on  the  field  of  battle, 
Neither  do  the  provisions  in  regard  to  the  security  of  property,  or  claim  to  service, 
make  it  unconstitutional,  under  the  war  power,  to  deprive  rebels  of  their  slaves. 
A  claim  to  service  for  years,  as  an  apprentice,  is  discharged  by  the  apprentice’s 
entering  the  Army.  Congressmay  discharge  from  thisservicein  order  to  raise  troops. 
Congress  niay  emancipate  all  slaves  to  raise  troops.  If  it  can  discharge  a  claim  to 
service  for  years  under  the  war  power,  can  it  not  discharge  a  claim  for  service  for 
life?  If  t.he  nation  is  entitled  to  the  military  service  of  all  able-bodied  men,  includ¬ 
ing  apprentices  held  to  service  for  years,  is  it  not  entitled  to  the  service  of  all  black 
or  white  men  held  for  life? 

Can  Congress,  by  law,  discharge  one  and  not  the  other  ? 

As  against  the  right  to  military  service,  is  the  claim  of  the  master  to  the  service 
of  a  slave  better  or  more  sacred  than  that  of  a  master  to  the  service  of  an  apprentice, 
or  of  a  father  to  the  service  of  his  child  ?  The  Government  can  take  my  son  and  your 
apprentice;  can  it  not  take  your  slave?  in  case  of  a  foreign  war,  could  not  the 
Government  conscript  every  able-bodied  slave  ?  Can  if  not  do  the  same  in  a  domes¬ 
tic  war  against  traitors?  Then  it  seems  clear  to  demonstration  that  the  Government 
may  emancipate  slaves. 

The  power,  then,  being  clear,  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  of  justice  and  humanity,  Jet 
it  be  exercised.  Proclaim  “liberty  throughout  the  land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof.” 

Let  us  build  upon  this  rock,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  us. 

1  cannot  close  without  offering  my  tribute  of  homage  to  that  great  man  who 
has  given  to  the  institution  of  slavery  ihe  hardest  blows  it  has  evei  received.  Let 
Abraham  Lincoln  finish  the  great  work  he  has  begun. 

The  ureat  objects  of  his  life  are  to  crush  the  rebellion  and  eradicate  slaver}’.  His 
ambition  is  to  live%»n  the  page  of  history  as  the  restorer  of  the  Union, the  emancipator 
of  his  country.  For  these  great  ends  lie  has  labored  and  toiled  through  difficulties 
and  obstacles  fully  known  only  to  himself  and  to  God. 

'1’he  year  that  has  just  closed  will  live  as  the  year  of  the  proclamation  of  eman¬ 
cipation.  This  act  the  President  declared  was  sincerely  believed  to  bean  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military  necessity  ;  and  he  invoked  for 
it  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God.  It 
will  maik  an  era  in  modern  civilization  as  clearly  as  the  Declaration  of  Indepen¬ 
dence.  or  the  acquisition  of  Magna  Chaita  By  history  it  will  beregauled  as  a  great 
act  of  humanity  and  jus'ice.  As  a  matter  of  State  policy,  its  wisdom  has  ulready 
been  vindicated.  Tiffs  proclamation,  by  presenting  our  national  struggle  as  a 
dearly-defined  contest  between  liberty  and  slavery,  changed  the  attitude  of  Europe 
towards  us.  Under  its  influence  and  the  victories  achieved  under  its  auspices,  all 
fear  of  foreign  intervention  has  disappeared.  Since  the  day  of  its  issue  no  more 
florid  os  have  tailed  from  British  waters  England’s  broad  arrow  arrests  the  rebel 
rams  being  fined  out  in  her  harbors.  Louis  .Napoleon,  following  the  example  of 


8 


Great  Britain  arrests  the  rebel  gunboats  in  the  waters  of  France.  Lord  Lyons  now 
rises  with  alacrity  to  warn  Mr.  Seward  of  a  rebel  plot  in  Canada. 

With  liberty  and  union  thus  written  by  the  President’s  own  hand  upon  our  national 
banner  we  have  had  Gettysburg,  Port  Hudson,  Vicksburg,  Knoxville  and  Chattanooga. 

It  has  been  the  fortune  of  the  President  to  have  his  leading  measures,  however 
severely  censured  at  the  time  of  their  adoption,  always  approved  within  a  twelve- 
month  afterwards.  The  emancipation  proclamation  and  employment  of  negroes  as 
soldiers  are  striking  examples.  Let  those  who  deny  his  statesmanship,  or  who  ques¬ 
tion  his  sagacity,  note  this  fact.  His  magnanimity  has  no  parallel.  He  has  borne 
censure  and  denunciation  for  acts  for  w-hich  others  were  responsible,  with  a  generosity 
which  has  extorted  from  his  rivals  the  declaration,  “  Of  all  men,  Mr.  Lincoln  is  the 
most  unselfish.”,  The  great  fault  of  his  administration,  the  too  tardy  removal  of 
incompetent  men,  has  arisen  from  a  scrupulous  care  to  be  just. 

1  ask  the  ardent  and  impatient  friends  of  freedom  to  put  implicit  faith  in  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Remember  he  lives  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  If  you  deem  him  slow,  or  if  you  think  he  has  made  mistakes,  remember 
how  often  time  has  vindicated  his  wisdom. 

One  of  the  most  striking  and  gratifying  vindications  of  the  policy  and  character 
of  President  Lincoln  is  to  be  found  in  the  reply  of  Count  Gar- par  in  and  his  associates 
to  the  letter  of  the  National  Loyal  League  of  New  York. 

These  distinguished  statesmen  and  scholars,  calm  and  truthful  observers,  in  their 
letter  exhibit  by  contrast  the  injustice  which  has  been  done  the  President  by  some  of 
the  zealous  abolitionists  of  America.  They  say: 

“  "We,  gentlemen,  are  abolitionists  ;  and  we  declare  that  we  have  never  hoped  nor  wished  for  a 
more  steady,  rapid,  and  resolute  progress.  We  have  understood  the  difficulties  which  surrounded 
Mr.  Lincoln.  We  have  honored  his  scruples  of  conscience  with  regard  to  theCoustitution  of  his 
country  which  stopped  his  path.  W e  have  admired  the  courageous  good  sense  with  which  he  moved 
straight  on,  the  instant  he  could  so  do  without  danger  to  hisdause  or  violation  of  the  law.’’ 

At  the  same  time  they  say  with  a  perfect  conviction,  that  the  destruction  of  sla¬ 
very  is  the  salvation  of  our  country. 

“We  hold  it  to  be  of  the  first  importance  that  the  cause  of  the  war  shall  not  survive  the  war  ; 
that  your  real  enemy,  slavery,  shall  not  remain  upon  the  field.” 

The  masses  of  the  people  everywhere  trust  and  love  the  President.  They  know  his 
hands  are  clean  and  his  breast  is  pure.  The  people  know  that  the  devil  lias  no  bribe  big 
enough,  no  temptation  of  gold,  or  place,  or  power,  which  can  seduce  the  honest  heart 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  They  know  that  while  he  is  President  there  is  no  danger  of 
coup  d'etat.  Let  lfim  exercise  whatever  extraordinary  powers  the  public  safety  may 
require,  the  people  instinctively  feel  that  their  liberties  and  laws  are  safe  in  his 
hands.  They  sleep  soundly,  with  no  disturbing  apprehensions,  while  he  holds  the 
reins.  Impetuous,  eager,  impatient  men  call  him  slow,  over  cautious,  wanting  in 
energy.  Remember  the  times  in  which  we  live  ;  remember  the  danger  of  reckless 
energy,  of  unscrupulous  will  and  passion. 

You  have  a  Chief  Magistrate  of  clean  hands  and  pure  heart ;  sagacious,  firm,  up¬ 
right,  and  true.  Somewhat  rude  and  rough,  it  may  be,  but  under  this  rough  exterior 
you  have  the  real  and  true  hero.  If  he  is  a  diamond  in  the  rough,  he  is  nevertheless 
real,  with  no- false  glitter  or  garish  pretension.  You  have  in  him  p,  man  of  that 
sobriety,  of  that  self-command,  of  that  freedom  from  passion,  of  that  justice  and  truth, 
of  that  soundness  of  judgment  and  perfect  rectitude  of  intention,  that  has  had,  in  all 
these  attributes,  no  parallel  since  the  days  of  Washington. 

Taking  the  last  five  eventful  years,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  has  exerted  a  greater  influence 
upon  the  popular  heart  and  in  forming  public  opinion  than  any  otherman.  If  slavery 
now  reels  and  staggers  in  its  last  struggles,  it  is  from  wounds  self-inflicted,  and  the 
blows  it  has  received  at  his  hands.  His  speeches  and  writings  plain,  homely,  and 
unpolished  as  they  sometimes  are,  have  become  the  household  vflbrds  of  the  people, 
and  crystallized  into  the  overwhelming  public  sentiment  which  demands  the  extinc¬ 
tion  of  slavery. 

He  is  a  radical — a  radical  from  conviction,  not  from  passion,  or  hatred,  or  revenge. 
In  all  great  radical  changes,  in  running  round  sharp  curves  is  it  hot  better  to  put  on 
the  brakes  sometimes,  rather  than  to  run  off  the  track  and  smash  up  the  train? 

There  are  always  men  who  are  loud,  boisterous,  furious,  intolerant,  proscriptive, 
and  cruel,  whose  hearts  are  filled  with  hatred  and  malice,  and  who,  to  eradicate  one 
evil,  are  willing  to  tear  up  the  good  which  it  has  taken  ages  to  secure.  Such  was 
not  the  example  set  by  the  greatest  reformer  and  most  radical  teacher  who  ever  ap¬ 
peared  on  earth,  the  Son  of  God.  Mr.  Lincoln’s  whole  theory  as  a  reformer  is  to  do 
the  greatest  possible  amount  of  good  with  the  least  possible  evil.  Were  he  more 
violent,  more  carelessly  destructive,  did  he  use  more  violent  wrords,  he  might  be 
perhaps  more  the  popular  idol,  but  less  the  statesman  and  the  Christian.  This  great 
statesman,  this  simple,  unpretending  man,  I  believe  to  be  the  instrument  raised  up  by 
God  to  work  out  the  regeneration  of  the  nation  by  the  death  of  American  slavery. 


L.  Towers  &  Co.,  Printers,  cor.  Louisiana  av.  and  6th  Bt. 


